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Todoist vs Things 3: Comprehensive Comparison 2024

A detailed analysis of features, pricing, user experience, and ideal use cases for the two most iconic task managers.

Introduction: The Philosophy of Productivity

In the realm of digital productivity, two names consistently rise above the noise: Todoist and Things 3. They represent divergent philosophies on how we should manage our tasks and time. Todoist, born from a startup's need for a simple, cross-platform tool, has evolved into a powerful, API-driven workhorse used by millions and thousands of teams. Things 3, the meticulously crafted Apple-exclusive darling, is less a tool and more a statement—a testament to the idea that an app can be both profoundly functional and breathtakingly beautiful.

This comparison is not about declaring an absolute "winner." It is about understanding which philosophy aligns with your brain, your workflow, and your ecosystem. We will dissect their features, pricing, performance, and recent updates (as of mid-2024) to provide a clear, actionable roadmap for your decision.

Core Features Deep Dive

At their heart, both applications solve the same problem: capturing, organizing, and reminding you of your commitments. Their approaches to the fundamentals, however, reveal their core identities.

Task Creation & Natural Language Input

Todoist excels with its incredibly robust natural language parser. You can type:

"Buy groceries tomorrow at 5pm"
"Pay taxes every last Friday of the month"
"Call Mom in 2 weeks"

The app intelligently parses dates, times, and complex recurring schedules (like "every 3rd Tuesday" or "every 2 months starting June 1"). It also supports @ for labels, # for projects, and ! for priorities directly in the input field.

Things 3 offers a more elegant, but simpler, NL experience. Typing "tomorrow" or "next Monday" works flawlessly. However, its recurrence options are limited to presets (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) or a custom interval (every x days/weeks/months). You cannot define a task like "every last Friday" without manual setup in the date popover. This reflects Things' philosophy: simplicity and clarity over exhaustive configurability.

Organization Hierarchy

Todoist uses a Projects → Sections → Tasks → Sub-tasks model. Projects can be color-coded and filtered. Sections group tasks within a project (e.g., "Planning," "Execution" in a "Website Redesign" project). Sub-tasks can be infinitely nested, allowing for granular breakdowns.

Things 3 uses a stricter Areas → Projects → Tasks model. Areas are high-level life spheres (e.g., "Work," "Health," "Personal"). Projects live within Areas and have a clear beginning and end. Crucially, Things limits visual nesting: a Project contains Tasks, and Tasks can have Checklists (sub-tasks), but there is no deeper hierarchy. This enforced simplicity prevents "sub-task creep" and keeps the focus on the next actionable step.

Views & Perspectives

Todoist's primary view is the Today and Upcoming list, but its power lies in Filters and Labels. You can create a filter like "Work + High Priority + Due in next 3 days" and save it. This turns the app into a dynamic query engine.

Things 3's killer feature is its Today view, which is the default launch screen. It magically aggregates tasks due Today, those you've scheduled for today, and your Anytime list (tasks from active projects you haven't scheduled). The Evening section is a thoughtful touch for personal tasks. The Upcoming view provides a clean weekly planner. There is no tagging system; instead, you rely on the When field (Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming, Someday) and project grouping for organization.

Collaboration, Automation & Ecosystems

This is the most significant dividing line between the two apps.

Teamwork & Sharing

Todoist for Business is a full-fledged collaboration platform. You can:

• Create organization-wide Teams and Projects.
• Assign tasks to multiple people, set deadlines, and add comments with file attachments.
• Use Activity Log to track changes.
• Integrate with Google Drive, Dropbox, and Zapier for seamless file sharing.

It scales from a 5-person design team to an enterprise of 25,000+ as mentioned in their documentation.

Things 3 has no native collaboration features. It is a single-player experience. You can share a project by exporting a .things file or using iCloud Drive, but this is read-only for the recipient and not a real-time collaborative workflow. If you need to delegate, you must use another tool (email, Slack) and manually recreate the task.

Automation & Integrations

Todoist's API is its superpower. It offers REST and GraphQL endpoints, allowing developers to build custom integrations. Common use cases include:

# Example: Create a task from a Slack message using Todoist API
curl -X POST https://api.todoist.com/sync/v9/tasks \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $TODOIST_TOKEN" \
     -d "content=Fix%20the%20bug%20in%20login%20page" \
     -d "due_string=tomorrow" \
     -d "project_id=123456789"

Coupled with Zapier, IFTTT, and Microsoft Power Automate, Todoist becomes a central hub. It connects to email, calendars, note-taking apps (like Evernote/OneNote), and hundreds of other services. You can automatically create a task from a starred Gmail, a Trello card, or a GitHub issue.

Things 3 relies on URL Schemes and the Shortcuts app (on iOS/macOS). You can create complex automations using the Shortcuts app to create tasks from Siri, share a webpage, or parse email. However, these are device-specific and lack the server-side, cross-platform reliability of a true API. For example, a Shortcut can create a task from a Siri command, but it won't sync that task to your partner's Things app.

Pricing Models & Platform Availability

This is another area of stark contrast.

*Pricing as of June 2024. Business plan requires annual commitment for discount.

Aspect	Todoist	Things 3
Free Plan	✅ Yes. Includes 5 active projects, 5 collaborators per project, basic features. (Tracks active vs. completed tasks).	❌ No. 14-day free trial for Mac/iOS apps.
Paid Plans	Pro ($4/month or $36/year) & Business ($6/user/month or $60/user/year). Unlocks reminders, activity log, unlimited projects, file uploads (100MB), and team features.	💳 One-time purchase: Mac $49.99, iPad $24.99, iPhone $19.99 (Universal Purchase for all Apple devices). No subscription.
Platform Support	Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, Apple Watch, Browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, Safari). All platforms are feature-parity and maintained.	Apple-exclusive: Mac (Apple Silicon & Intel), iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch. No web version, no Android, no Windows/Linux.
Sync Model	Cloud-first. Instant sync across all devices via Todoist servers. Offline mode supported, changes sync when back online.	Things Cloud (free). Syncs via encrypted iCloud. Extremely fast and reliable within the Apple ecosystem. No third-party server dependency.

User Experience, Design & Performance

Here, Things 3 holds a decisive, almost unfair, advantage.

Things 3 is a masterpiece of interaction design. Every animation is buttery smooth (60fps), every transition feels deliberate. The "Magic Plus Button" for adding tasks works from any list. The checkmark animation provides a tiny dopamine hit. The visual hierarchy is impeccable, using whitespace, typography (Inter and Mark Pro fonts), and subtle color (slate blue, orange accents) to guide the eye. It feels less like software and more like a finely crafted notebook.

Todoist has improved dramatically with its Todoist Next redesign (2023-2024). It adopted a cleaner, more card-based interface with better use of color and whitespace. However, it still carries the legacy of being a cross-platform web app at its core. Animations can feel slightly heavier on older devices, and the sheer number of features can make the interface feel busier. Its strength is functional clarity, not aesthetic minimalism.

Performance: Things 3, being native to Apple platforms and storing data locally (synced via Cloud), opens instantly and scrolls without lag, even with thousands of tasks. Todoist, which relies on cloud sync, can occasionally have a perceptible delay when loading very large projects or after a period of offline use, as it needs to reconcile changes.

Recent Updates & Future Roadmap (2024-2026)

Todoist (Doist): The 2023-2024 "Todoist Next" overhaul focused on unification and polish. Recent updates (2024-2025) have emphasized AI-powered features. "Smart Schedule" uses AI to suggest due dates based on your habits. "Task Bundles" (AI-suggested groupings of related tasks) are in beta. Doist has also heavily invested in Team Features, adding threaded comments, improved @mentions, and better admin controls in 2025. Their public roadmap indicates continued investment in AI for task breakdown and priority suggestions, as well as deeper calendar integration.

Things 3 (Cultured Code): The team is famously secretive and slow-moving. The last major feature addition was Things Cloud in 2019 and the Widgets update in 2021. Their 2024-2025 pattern suggests minor, focused updates: improved Markdown support in notes, better Siri integration, and refined drag-and-drop on iPadOS. They have not announced any AI features, adhering to their philosophy of human-centric design. Their roadmap, if one exists publicly, points to incremental perfection rather than revolutionary new features.

Ideal User Profiles: Who is Each App For?

Verdict: The Sum of All Parts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Todoist for personal tasks and Things 3 for work?

Absolutely. Many users employ a "best-of-both-worlds" strategy. They use Todoist for collaborative work projects and Things 3 for personal life management. This leverages Todoist's team features and Things' serene personal interface.

Is Things 3 worth the $80+ price tag for Mac, iPad, and iPhone?

For committed Apple users, yes. The price buys you a lifetime of updates for a piece of software that provides daily joy and frictionless use. If you are tight on budget or unsure, the lack of a free tier is a significant hurdle.

Does Todoist's free plan have any limitations for serious personal use?

The 5-project limit is the main constraint. For a simple personal system with projects like "Health," "Home," "Learning," "Finances," and "Side Project," it works. However, if you like to create a new project for every hobby or trip, you'll hit the limit quickly. The 5-collaborator limit per project is also restrictive for small community groups.

Which app has better calendar integration?

Todoist offers deeper two-way sync with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, showing your tasks as events and allowing drag-and-drop rescheduling. Things 3's integration is one-way (tasks appear in your calendar app) and is generally considered less powerful, though sufficient for basic planning.

Can I migrate from one to the other easily?

Yes, but not with a single button. You can export from Todoist as a CSV and import into Things 3 using their import guide, but you'll lose metadata like labels, comments, and complex recurrences. Manual recreation is often cleaner. Dedicated migration tools exist on GitHub but require technical comfort.

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